An update from down under. After an expansion of indication by our regulatory authorities which allows vaccination against HPV for boys, there is a front page article about it in the local newsletter provided by Alex's (and Gabe's) primary practitioner. Very exciting. Oral cancer and the role HPV has to play gets its own paragraph. Even more exciting! Well meaning but entirely ignorant general practitioner now gets to read all about the thing I have been banging on about for the last 12 months in his own newsletter! Poetic justice!!!

But there's more ..,

Last Thursday, I was sitting at the dentist waiting my turn when the rep showed up expounding the virtues of mouthwash to the dental assistant. Being the person I am and refusing to let a chance go by, I butted in and asked if there was an update around the controversy with alcohol in mouthwashes being causative for cancer? She started rattling on that there was no link between alcohol and oral cancer to which I replied that before she went any further, that my Love of Life had just gone through hell with oral cancer and alcohol was definitely implicated although not necessarily from mouthwashes. She said she would look into it and get back to me. During this exchange, the dental assistant was watching the exchange goggle-eyed and after the rep left asked about my Alex. After discovery that she had a boy, I managed to give her a fast education about oral cancer including the link to HPV and the vaccination available and gave her my copy of the newsletter. I know she will talk to the dentist who is one of the few who are diligent in checking the state of the mouth for abnormalities (as well as charging like a wounded bull for making me and my teeth "pretty"). I am hoping this will open the door for a discussion with my dentist and I can dump a years worth of research and discussions at her feet. She is absolutely in the best position to talk to her patients about this if sufficiently fired up. At the very least there may be one boy in Australia about to get a course of HPV vaccinations.

One step at a time...